


blindfolded.

by stardustgirl



Series: Two Sides of a Coin [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: (sort of?), Allomancy, Angst, Azula (Avatar) Needs a Hug, Blindfolds, Btw you don’t have to have read Mistborn to understand this!!!, Child Abuse, Enemy to Caretaker, Heavy Angst, Hurt Zuko (Avatar), Mistborn AU, Ozai (Avatar) Being a Terrible Parent, Prompt Fill, Protective Azula (Avatar), Whumptober, Whumptober 2020, Zuko (Avatar) Needs Therapy, Zuko (Avatar) Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-24
Updated: 2020-10-24
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27181202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustgirl/pseuds/stardustgirl
Summary: “If you had been born like Azula, then you wouldn’tbein this mess.  She was born a Mistborn, boy.  Why couldn’t you have been the same?”aka the Mistborn AU only I wanted but it fills whumptober so I guess I’ll share it oop(Prompt fill for “Blindfolded” and “Enemy to Caretaker” for Whumptober.)
Relationships: Azula & Ozai & Zuko, Azula & Zuko (Avatar), Ozai & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: Two Sides of a Coin [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1984055
Comments: 3
Kudos: 39
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	blindfolded.

**Author's Note:**

> TW: Restraints, Sensory Overload (of a sort? idk but better safe than sorry), Child Abuse

Everything is white, here.

Zuko shifts in his restraints, the creaking of the ropes and the coarse fibers brushing and poking his skin sucking all his attention. He shifts his leg again, the water sloshing loud enough it sounds practically next to his ear.

The sensation isn’t _bad,_ not necessarily. Just...odd. The water _is_ cold, though, cold enough a shudder runs through him.

“Zuko.”

He jumps, breath coming faster and burning in his lungs. There’s footsteps, off to...to the left? He’s not entirely sure. He exhales again, moving his wrists.

“Zuko, where is the attack coming from?”

Attack? What atta—

Something flies past his ear, so quickly it practically whistles, and Zuko yelps reflexively. “Th– there, sir,” he answers quickly, trying to tamp down the unreasonable panic swelling up within him. “Behind me.”

“Good.” More footsteps, this time _definitely_ on the right. He’ll need to remember to say thanks after for it being on his good side.

“But not good enough.”

A blow hits him between his shoulder blades, sending him to his knees in the frigid water. He lets out a hiss of breath, biting back a cry.

“If you don’t recognize the origin of an attack before it arrives, then how, pray tell, would you possibly be able to defend against it?” There’s a hand in his hair, wrenching his neck back, and a glass dagger rests casually against his throat. “And that would be your head, boy.”

Zuko inhales sharply, suddenly so aware of the dagger’s light pressure that he can’t even make himself nod.

“Get up.”

He obeys the voice, swallowing hard. The water sloshes, ice-cold, against his shins, and he suppresses a grimace.

“Where is the attack coming from, Zuko?”

He strains all his senses, flaring his tin until— _there._

“From be– behind me, to the ri—“

Too late. Something is already whizzing past his ear and in his struggle to avoid it, he trips over the edge of the wooden tub and lands, hard, on the stone. Pain shoots up his shoulder immediately and he bites back a cry.

“ _Useless._ ” He doesn’t get the chance to react as a coin hits him in the back of his neck, the sharp and sudden pain not enough to make him black out or to break anything, but definitely enough to make him wish it did. “Maybe if you didn’t take after your skaa mother so much, she wouldn’t be _dead,_ boy.” Zuko whimpers at that, the sound morphing into a yelp as a hand fists in his hair and drags him up and onto his soaked knees on the cool stone floor.

“I’m– I’m sorry, sir—“

“Don’t _speak,_ boy.” The hand tightens, his neck straining. “If you had been born like Azula, then you wouldn’t _be_ in this mess. She was born a Mistborn, boy. Why couldn’t you have been the same?”

Zuko chokes down his shame, nodding as much as he can despite the growing ache in his scalp. “I’m sorry, Father,” he whispers. “I’ll– I’ll do better.”

The hand remains a moment longer before letting go, releasing him to collapse back onto the floor. “Azula!” Father barks. “Get him unbound and meet me at the guardhouse. There are some there who believe their opinions to be worth more than their lives.”

“Yes, Father,” his sister says, her voice just submissive enough so as not to be a threat. He hears footsteps, and then the door closing. And then Azula’s hands are on his, untying the ropes before moving to take off his blindfold. Her hands are soft, strangely gentle on him in a way they never are when Father’s around. He wishes she would be this careful all the time, instead of only in the shadows.

Though it seems they all have reputations to keep up.

“You’re still burning,” she observes as the cloth falls away. “You can stop now, you know.”

Slowly, he lets up on the tin, allowing the pain thrumming through his body to ease. Zuko lets out a shaky sigh, swallowing hard.

“I can’t always go easy on you, Zuzu, you know that.”

“Easy?” he echoes, a razored laugh sticking to his throat like the ash sticks to the streets. “You call that ‘going _easy?_ ’”

“I could’ve hit you there, a million times over. And Father knows I'm a good shot. I can’t keep missing you.”

“I know,” he says. She falls silent, looking at him with what could almost be construed as pity were it not for the fact that this is Azula.

“I’m sorry,” she replies after a long, long moment.

He can’t find anything else to say to that.

**Author's Note:**

> Couldn’t think of a better name for this RIP but yeah


End file.
